Business Brunch Events - 2016

Business Brunches: Inspiring Scotland’s future global workforce

Back by popular demand, SCILT, in partnership with the University Council for Modern Languages Scotland held a series of Business Brunch events (formerly Business Breakfast) across Scotland, during January and February this year where 714 learners from S3-S6 across 74 schools heard from a range of business leaders who view language skills as key to the growth and success of their company.

These events demonstrated the relevance of language skills in a work context and aimed to encourage pupils to continue with their language studies into the senior phase, and beyond.

The events were held in Glasgow, Dundee, Inverness, Renfrewshire, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. On average, 10 businesses were in attendance at each event and ranged from law firms to shipping companies to banks. The tourism industry and oil sector were also represented. Schools from 24 local authorities and two independent schools participated.

Fhiona Fisher, Director of SCILT said: “Events such as these are a really important way of providing young people with high quality careers advice delivered by the business people themselves and of demonstrating to them the value of language skills in our increasingly globalised world.”

A teacher who attended said:

“This was an enjoyable and highly informative opportunity to speak to successful people who can partially or entirely attribute their success to use of language. The Business Brunch certainly makes it clear to learners that languages are important.”

One of the young people added to this and commented:

“I found out how languages help you go further and can give you a head start. It was interesting to find out how many jobs you can get even if you only know a bit of the language.”

See further feedback and find out more about the events by clicking on the tabs above.

Following the success of the Business Breakfast events held for school pupils in Scotland last year, further Business Brunch events were held around the country at the start of 2016.

About the events

Business participants

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Business Brunches: Inspiring Scotland’s future global workforce

Back by popular demand, SCILT, in partnership with the University Council for Modern Languages Scotland held a series of Business Brunch events (formerly Business Breakfast) across Scotland, during January and February this year where 714 learners from S3-S6 across 74 schools heard from a range of business leaders who view language skills as key to the growth and success of their company.

These events demonstrated the relevance of language skills in a work context and aimed to encourage pupils to continue with their language studies into the senior phase, and beyond.

The events were held in Glasgow, Dundee, Inverness, Renfrewshire, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. On average, 10 businesses were in attendance at each event and ranged from law firms to shipping companies to banks. The tourism industry and oil sector were also represented. Schools from 24 local authorities and two independent schools participated.

Fhiona Fisher, Director of SCILT said: “Events such as these are a really important way of providing young people with high quality careers advice delivered by the business people themselves and of demonstrating to them the value of language skills in our increasingly globalised world.”

A teacher who attended said:

“This was an enjoyable and highly informative opportunity to speak to successful people who can partially or entirely attribute their success to use of language. The Business Brunch certainly makes it clear to learners that languages are important.”

One of the young people added to this and commented:

“I found out how languages help you go further and can give you a head start. It was interesting to find out how many jobs you can get even if you only know a bit of the language.”

See further feedback and find out more about the events by clicking on the tabs above.

Below are some of the comments received from business participants, teachers and pupils at the Business Brunch events:

Marion Spöring (Chair UCML Scotland and University of Dundee) said: "It was great to see the enthusiasm and feel the buzz of over a hundred pupils , finding out about the many exciting ways languages open employment opportunities in local and global businesses. From creative and heritage industries, computer gaming and worldwide marketing - there are discoveries to be made and multilingual people are the key for success in business."

You can see photos from the Business Brunch events below:

Business Brunches raised interest and featured in publications we found: